Trofim Lysenko

Trofim Lysenko (29 September 1898-20 November 1976) was a Soviet agronomist and biologist whose rejection of Gregor Mendel's theory and his pseudoscientific theories about crop yields led to widespread famine during the 1930s.

Biography
Trofim Lysenko was born in Karlivka, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire (now Poltava Oblast, Ukraine) in 1898. While working on an agricultural experiment station in Azerbaijan in 1927, he came up with his theory of vernalization, coming up with the idea of converting winter wheat into spring wheat. He held somewhat Lamarckian views on heredity, believing in smart inheritance and rejecting Gregor Mendel's theories. His experimental research in improved crop yields earned him the support of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and he came up with pseudoscientific ideals which legally replaced Mendelian science. Under Stalin, Mendelian science was rejected, and scientists who refused to renounce genetics were dismissed from their posts and left destitute, while hundreds to thousands of others were either imprisoned or executed during the Great Purge. He remained at the Institute of Genetics until 1965, but his influence on Soviet agriculture declined after Stalin's death in 1953. He died in 1976 at the age of 78.